Religion: Brainwashing the kids since the Bronze Age
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Category Archives: Thought
The Mental Harm Done By Religion
Does Conservatism Have to Be Synonymous With Ignorance? [You Bet’cha!]
The Catholic Church [the well-renowned international child raping organization] has long been an enemy of emerging technology, especially when it comes to reproductive health, opposing any technology that alters the ‘natural’ scheme of sex and reproduction. . . .
But it is Mr. Santorum whose vehement opposition involves not only emerging reproductive technology but also almost any form of medical intervention in reproduction, positive or negative. It would be tempting to chalk up Mr. Santorum’s medieval views to a devout Catholic fundamentalism, but that is unfair to Catholicism. Mr. Santorum instead represents the very epitome of many among the modern breed of conservative Republicans: Ignorant and proud of it.
Mr. Santorum has steadfastly maintained throughout his career an almost perfect record of opposing the well-known evidence of empirical reality. . . .
Santorum’s proud ignorance is unfortunately not unique. Over the past decade, since the success of George W. Bush’s candidacy for President, conservatism in this country has become synonymous with such ignorance. . . .
Choosing to censor or distort knowledge rather than risk the possibility that such knowledge, or the technologies that result from it, might challenge faith or confront preexisting ideological biases is a something that should better characterize the Taliban or al Qaeda rather than the Republican Party.
Heaven Can Wait: Was I wrong about the afterlife? No. / By Christopher Hitchens, as told to Art Levine
At the end, the manner of my “passing,” as the pious so delicately refer to death, was as much a disappointment to the dewy-eyed acolytes of god-worship as it was to me, although for rather different reasons. For more than a year after I publicly announced in June 2010 that I would begin chemotherapy for esophageal cancer, the stupidest of the faithful either gloated on their subliterate Web sites that my illness was a sign of “God’s revenge” for having blasphemed their Lord and Master, or prayed that I would abandon my contempt for their nonsensical beliefs by undergoing a deathbed conversion. The vulgarity of the idea that a vengeful deity would somehow stoop to inflicting a cancer on me still boggles the mind, especially in the face of the ready explanation supplied for my illness by my long, happy, and prodigious career as a smoker of cigarettes and drinker of spirits. . . .
Aphorism: On Willful Ignorance
By Madison S. Hughes (03.12.2012)
One of the peculiar properties of truth is that it has a bit of a sting. It strikes me as queer that when one speaks harsh truth to ignorance, especially willful ignorance, predictably they are reprimanded with comment concerning the tone, rather than the substance, of their argument.
It is socially acceptable for flat-earther’s to publicly express their willful ignorance. Most are quite proud of their willful ignorance, and publicly display it as a badge of honor. Paradoxically, it is not socially acceptable to publicly point out their willful ignorance. For my part, I cannot, and will not give willful ignorance a free pass.
Quote: Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov born Eyzik Yudovitš Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992)
American author, professor of biochemistry at Boston University, one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards, a humanist, a rationalist and an atheist
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
Quote: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson, MPhil, PhD (born October 5, 1958)
American astrophysicist, science communicator and author
The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.
Atheist Shoes (VIDEO)
Now, I realise that some of you haven’t the foggiest what an Atheist shoe is. And, admittedly, an atheist shoes sounds like a peculiar idea. But we think a shoe is a lovely, understated way for atheists to out themselves and to be less shy about their godlessness. And we also think our Bauhaus-inspired, 1930s-infatuated shoes will be a welcome antidote to the samey junk pumped out by the big sneaker corporations – not only do we feel our designs are prettier, but we know that the care, craftsmanship and quality of materials going into our shoes are superior to those invested by N**e, *onver*e and Ad***s.
Yes, life without God can be bleak. Atheism is about facing up to that.
Atheists have to live with the knowledge that there is no salvation, no redemption, no second chances. Lives can go terribly wrong in ways that can never be put right. Can you really tell the parents who lost their child to a suicide after years of depression that they should stop worrying and enjoy life? Doesn’t the appropriate response to 4,000 children dying everyday as a direct result of poor sanitation involve despair at the relentless misery of the world as well as some effort to improve things? Sometimes life is shit and that’s all there is to it. Not much bright about that fact.
Stressing the jolly side of atheism not only glosses over its harsher truths, it also disguises its unique selling point. The reason to be an atheist is not that it makes us feel better or gives us a more rewarding life. The reason to be an atheist is simply that there is no God and we would prefer to live in full recognition of that, accepting the consequences, even if it makes us less happy. The more brutal facts of life are harsher for us than they are for those who have a story to tell in which it all works out right in the end and even the most horrible suffering is part of a mystifying divine plan. If we don’t freely admit this, then we’ve betrayed the commitment to the naked truth that atheism has traditionally embraced. . .
And so we [atheists] don’t just get on and enjoy life, we embark on our own intellectual pilgrimages [emphasis added], trying to make some progress in a universe on which no meaning has been writ. The journey can be wonderful but it can also be arduous and it may end horribly. But there is no other way, and anyone who urges you to follow a path that they promise leads to a bright future [i.e., salvation] is either gravely mistaken or a charlatan [emphasis added].
This is Your Life
Source: The Deckle Edge
Always Question Authority 